Introduction

Tarmac was formed in 1903 as TarMacadam Syndicate Limited. The original name came from the developer of the modern road construction system John MacAdam. It is now part of Anglo American plc. In 2005 the Anglo American group had sales of around £21 billion worldwide and 195,000 employees in 50 countries.

Tarmac forms 90 per cent of Anglo American's Industrial Minerals division. Its sales in 2005 were around £210 million and it employed 13,000 staff. A mistaken belief is that Tarmac only mends our roads.

Tarmac's mission statement

All organisations have a purpose and this can be shown in the form of a mission statement. Tarmac's is:

'To be the first choice for building materials and services that meet the essential needs for the development of the world in which we live.'

From this we know:

• Tarmac wants to be the first name a person thinks of when considering building materials

• its products are essential for building

• it is an organisation that behaves responsibly with sustainability in mind.

A mission statement can be used as the starting point for corporate planning, budgeting and corporate governance rules. Tarmac also uses its mission statement for setting such things as corporate values or culture as well as human resource principles.

Tarmac's corporate values are to be: reliable, responsive, understanding, straightforward.

Tarmac expands on its mission statement by stressing four key corporate values. These are being:

• reliable

• responsive

• understanding

• straightforward.

Elements at Tarmac

The diagram shows how the company is organised and the various support functions that are needed.

Tarmac operates both aggregate and building product operations internationally. It works in a wide variety of countries, including the UK< Poland, Spain, Romania, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and the Middle East.